Sophat's Group

Sophat is 25 years of age and a villager residing in Battambong province’s Sangke district, Cambodia. She is married and blessed with two kids (one daughter and one son), both of whom are still under her responsibility. To support her family, Sophat has been working as a rice farmer for 10 years, earning approximately 25,000 KHR per day and saving around 13,000 KHR after deducting her daily expenses. Sophat is leading a group to request a loan of 1,200,000 KHR each. For both of them, this will be their second time requesting a loan from VisionFund (Kiva’s partner). The past loan has helped group leader Sophat to better support her family and expand her business. With her loan, Sophat will buy fertilizers and rice seeds for her cultivated land and pay the fees for plowing her rice field and transplanting rice seedlings. Her hope for the future is to be able to boost her income even more so that she can better secure her family’s needs.

Additional Information

About VisionFund Cambodia

VisionFund Cambodia is a Christian organization and microfinance institution that provides small loans and other financial services to improve the lives of children, empower poor women and their families, and grow successful businesses. The organization works primarily in rural parts of Cambodia and has distinguished itself by targeting the very poor who require smaller loan sizes, regardless of religious beliefs, gender or ethnic background.

Kiva lenders’ funds will help the organization to expand into the northeastern provinces of the country, which have historically been underserved and difficult to reach with financial services.

This is a Group Loan

In a group loan, each member of the group receives an individual loan but is part of a larger group of individuals. The group is there to provide support to the members and to provide a system of peer pressure, but groups may or may not be formally bound by a group guarantee. In cases where there is a group guarantee, members of the group are responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members in the case of delinquency or default.

Kiva's Field Partners typically feature one borrower from a group. The loan description, sector, and other attributes for a group loan profile are determined by the featured borrower's loan. The other members of the group are not required to use their loans for the same purpose.